Trump: ‘Crazy’ for any Christian to vote for Democrat

Former President Trump told attendees at a Christian media convention Thursday that it would be “crazy” for any Christian to vote for a Democratic candidate, framing the 2024 election as a broader fight against a “radical left” intent on going after patriotic Christians.

“How any Christian can vote for a Democrat, Christian or person of faith, person of faith — how you can vote for a Democrat is crazy. It’s crazy,” Trump said at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) International Christian Media Convention in Nashville.

Trump made the remark while railing against his multiple indictments, characterizing himself as the victim of “the radical left” that he claimed is “coming after all of us” due to “allegiance to our country” and “our creator.”

The former president has sought to shore up support among Christian conservatives, who were key to his 2016 electoral rise, as he works to clinch the Republican presidential nomination this year and go head-to-head against President Biden in November.

A recent poll found more Republican respondents saying Trump is a person of faith in comparison to other GOP figures. The survey, conducted by HarrisX for Deseret News, found 64 percent of Republicans saying Trump is a person of faith.

That was higher than the 56 percent of Republicans who said they think former Vice President Mike Pence, an evangelical Christian, is a person of faith. Trump soured on Pence after he played a largely ceremonial role formalizing the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021.

The former president in his speech Thursday said Christians “can’t afford to sit on the sidelines” in what he said is a fight against political opponents — “whether you call it the radical left, or the communists or the fascists.” 

“They have to really get out there, and they have to do what they have to do, and they have to win,” Trump said.

Biden’s campaign recently said that a second Trump presidential term would be “straight out of the Handmaid’s Tale,” in the wake of a Politico report detailing how the former president’s allies are working to incorporate “Christian nationalist ideas” into another term.

“This is straight out of the Handmaid’s Tale. Nationwide abortion bans, attacks on same-sex marriage, and restrictions on contraception — this is the horrifying reality being openly discussed by Team Trump and the likely architects of his second term agenda,” Biden campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said Tuesday.